Right after the conference in Tucson, I had to go the the SC11/SC12 committee meeting in Seattle. It didn’t seem useful to fly back to Champaign over the weekend (I could have spent 20 hours in planes and 6 hours at home, probably sleeping anyway. So I just stayed in Seattle over the weekend. I received very bad news during that trip but fortunately, I was around a friend and we went hiking in Seattle (thanks Frank!).
We did two day-hikes that were not trivial. Unfortunately, I had my knee injured before but it was ok. On the first day, we climbed mount SI, acutally, we climbed from the bottom to the *very* top (the rock thing on the top!!). This was quite a hike. Approximately 4000 feet height difference and three hours walking (one way). The last climb was up a massive rock wall, it was very dangerous (adrenaline!) but also very impressive and nice. We beat the mountain!
The second day hike was to a large waterfall and a lake at the top of a mountain at Lake Serene. It was just stunningly beautiful even though I got a bit wet in the waterfall, and slipping was somewhat dangerous too :-).
Here is the GPS tracking of our Lake Serene hike (my new phone rocks!):
Here are some pictures:
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- The majestic mountain! Yes, we hiked from the very bottom to the very top (the massive rocks at the top).
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- Very nice views on the way up!
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- The first “station” where most people stopped :-). Frank and me made it too!
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- Most people stopped here (We’re still in America :-)).
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- Mount Rainier, very impressive!
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- Me and Rainier again
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- Enough posing, this is the last wall to climb!! Kinda straight up a rock wall 🙂
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- Yes, falling was a big danger but it only happened nearly 🙂
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- No stairs but nice rocks
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- The very bottom, people thought we were crazy that we tried to jump even higher than that 🙂
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- And higher!
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- The proof that Frank and me made it!
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- Very nice view on our friend Rainier again!
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- We took another route down (without knowing).
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- The bottom of the mountain had a very nice valley with a river.
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- Very nice.
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- But the water was *freezing* cold!
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- Day hike two – first station – a large waterfall.
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- Yes, falling can be deadly!
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- And the water was really rough!
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- That’s why I had to walk into the fall!!! Man, the drift and pressure was really high, I was nearly swept away. At least I was very wet afterwards but it was worth this picture :-).
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- The waterfall from the bottom
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- Ah, that’s where I would have fallen :-). I still prefer standing there.
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- Somebody had to keep this thing in place :-).
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- The lake at the very top. The hike was dangerous and long and the lake somewhat disappointing. And it was *really* cold too!
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- Yes, it was still full of ice (June).
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- But Frank and I made it!
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- And saw the very nice views again!
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- And some nice things on the way down :-).